New Role as Councilor: Principles & Platform

POLITICAL PRINCIPLES
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My role as Councilor will endeavor to realize my commitment to God and all the residents of our municipality, a commitment that revolves around these five principles of government:

Austerity

• Our town needs government that is efficient and which makes careful use of financial resources. The current difficult times demand that we do more with less, that we eliminate the non-essential, and that we act responsibly to achieve better government with resources which belong to everyone.

Information

• All activity of our Town Hall must be transparent. Our government must be committed to supplying information about its activities on a constant basis. Provide maximum advance information and transparency in all future decisions, making use of new technology such as the internet in order to do so, publicizing plenary meetings, carrying out public consultations, etc.

Standards

• I believe in improving the town’s image, to act responsibly and openly, and in accordance with the highest standards of public office as well as government by rule of law. Ensuring that the future development of Mansalay be planned and supervised through legislative processes according to the real needs of people, not based on short-term and unsustainable speculation.

Dialogue

• I believe in continuous dialogue and will work towards finding the best solutions, in broad-based political agreements that join together and benefit all our people.

Freedom

• I believe that a free society is also more equitable. That is why we must ensure that when we act in the name of freedom, in whatever form it might take, that that freedom is real for all the citizens of our municipality.


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PRIORITIES & PLATFORM
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1. HEALTH

• Work towards improving health services in Barangay level, including availability of regular health check-ups and free medicines, exploring all avenues to rectify inadequate services to the outlying and remote areas.

• Review community health and sanitary problems related to incomplete infrastructure such as the sewage and waste disposal system as part of primary health care and attempt to address them.

• Work towards improving existing local health services, especially regards to the health and nutritional needs of the children, child bearing population, elderly and indigenous population.

• Endeavor to sustain Feeding Program and Healthy Teeth Campaign at Community Day Care Centers and elementary schools I personally started five years ago.

• Conduct regular health teachings and family education with regards to local health concerns, nutrition, morbidity and epidemics.

2. EDUCATION

• Provide maximum advance in terms of education through the use of new technology such as the internet and computers.

• Improve the town educational status through teacher empowerment, without forgetting to invest in and maintain the indigent Mangyan communities which have traditionally been overlooked.

• Promote opportunities for college and technical education.

• Attempt to accelerate the provision and construction of low-cost education and training programs.

• Endeavor to ensure maximum transparency in the municipal budget, as well as equitable allocation of services and funding for education.

3. YOUTH & EMPLOYMENT

• Encourage recreation activities for young people such as sports and other skills training.

• Encourage participation of young citizens in matters related to town activities.

• Encourage to increase youth participation in all major decisions affecting the town, encouraging attendance at public gatherings and meetings

• Increase activities to facilitate meaningful integration of the different Christian & Mangyan youth groups.

• Help in providing opportunities for technical skills training, scholarships and college education.

• Help in coordinating the town’s tourism plans such that local businesses are supported.

5. ENVIRONMENT & TOURISM

• Encourage the creation of sustainable employment, particularly in sectors related to the development of tourism and the town’s historic & ethnic heritage, sustainable construction and maintenance, or workshops in new ecological activities, etc.

• Help in designing a comprehensive tourism plan highlighting the town’s historical and ecological value, encouraging participation of all commercial sectors of the town.

• Encourage a professional workshop for the introduction of and experimentation in ecological agriculture in Mansalay.

• Promote the reforestation and proper garbage disposal

• Lobby for and promote usage of a municipal tourism site built according to ecological and sustainable principles.

Servant or Leader?

“Servant Leaders bring in the best talent in the business in order to accomplish their goal, even when that means they may be upstaged.” (russcanto)

As humans, we naturally organize people into two categories: servants and masters, or leaders and followers. But there is a third category that Jesus asks us to participate in… many knows it as the “servant leader”.

I’ve had small bits of leadership during my life, and this is never something that I’ve thought deeply about. Servant leading? Yeah, okay, totally. I’ve heard that term since I was a kid, in Sunday school and on mission trips.

But in the recent future I’ve suddenly begun to have real leadership positions… I have people working under me, and I have to lead WELL… and I’m glad that there is a learning curve, because I have a lot of work to do! I like to lead, but I’m not always necessarily GOOD at leading, I’ve found.

And then today I stumble upon John 13. (Well it wasn’t too much of a stumble, really - since I’m reading through John)

This is the chapter of the Bible where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. Wow. It’s kind of crazy. He is the leader of ALL, and yet he’s stooping to do something dirty and menial, but he’s doing it FOR THEM. He isn’t too much of a leader to serve. Because the right kind of leader is one who serves. Yes, a leader is needed to stand up and give instructions and organize and hold people to deadlines and all that… but there’s also this part of being a leader - a very important part - that included being willing to SERVE those who are following you. To be willing to do their jobs, or even jobs below what they do, in order to help them or care for them.

I think the idea of a servant leader is nice and idealistic, but it’s not often seen. Sure, there is the perfect model that Christ gave us, but where else do we see this being carried out?

The modern business world often promotes an, “ahead at any/all costs” mentality. The modern world of church leadership often values flash, numbers, and giving rather than substance, service, and sacrifice. Don’t even get me started on the modeling that occurs within Hollywood and those of fame and status.

When you become a leader, you get a whole lot more responsibility. You become partially responsible for those who are following you, or working for you. It’s easy to just get caught up with finishing your task, and forget about serving those you are working with. (Courtesy: Natalie of http://coffeetimewithgod.tumblr.com/)

And I’m determined to learn how to NOT do that. Like Jesus.

“Whenever we have an opportunity or responsibility to influence the thinking, behavior, or development of others, the first choice we are called to make is whether to see the moment through the eyes of self-interest or for the benefit of those we are leading.”

—           Ken Blanchard

Young Filipinos clueless about Edsa People Power

      This, apparently, is the reality now in the Philippines: Young people clueless about their own history, both recent and not-too-recent.

       But this is hardly surprising because, in Philippine classrooms, the teaching of history and social studies have been de-emphasized, with the schools now preparing Filipino students to study for courses that could land them a job abroad either as electricians, nurses, computer technicians, chambermaids, domestic helpers and waiters. Social studies and current events have been pushed aside.

       Filipinos are becoming a people without a sense of history. This is sad because I don’t think a country can move forward without appreciating its past and learning from it. This is probably why, 25 years after the People Power revolt, Filipinos are still grappling with its meaning and unable to harness the lessons from that experience for the good of the country.(Courtesy: James Cordova)

Republic of Corruption

Corruption has been one of the major problems of our country for centuries. It can be traced back during the Spanish era wherein our own colonizers itself practice corruption in many ways, some in government affairs and projects and most are from religious means from Spanish priest or prayle. For 333 years, we were exposed to that kind of obnoxious attitude which taught us to abuse minority and feel superior to ourselves while lavishing the money poor people had worked hard to earn.

            We are now in the middle of advancement where our country encourages development and breakthroughs for the betterment of people. The undeniable influence of modernity became an imprint to our daily life which left nothing but history books to tell us of the ruins and traditions our colonizers had instilled us. Slowly, we are loosing our tight hold to our old cultures which were the product of hundred years of imprisonment and great oppression from different countries; however, corruption, still rigid and hard, had survived and remained as an unresolved problem reigning in our society and a bit of a remembrance from our colonizers.

            Up until now, we see through our own eyes how corruption is solved with tolerance and no action. It seems like its pretty normal that a politician is corrupt, that a government leader is being paid for illegal means that a man must die to stand against corruption and that nobody survives when you’re against it. If you can’t beat them, then be one of them. That might be the reason why only a few stands for the right. I’m afraid if this continues, no progress could be seen and we will forever remain as a developing country. We will forever suffer the aftermath of lenience with corruption. However, it is never too late to move and put your plans into action. With strict implementation of anti-corruption campaign and should be powered by the government itself and the people as the watchers of justice, corruption may still be shattered into pieces. We, citizens should pay attention to the politicians who are not practicing the campaign. There should be no exceptions, no family, friends, or close relatives that will stop them from being charged with corruption. To this campaign, there is no blood and acquaintances involved. Everyone should be punished if failed to get rid of corruption. The implementation of the campaign should be fair and equal.

            With the increasing number of population, the greater the demand of food and the higher risk of poverty, we should not let corruption get in our way again. By exterminating it, other branch out problems would be gone like poverty and scarcity of food. So let us be part for a bigger change.

Courtesy: http://ironicempress.tumblr.com/

JOSE RIZAL

“They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections - they forgot their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws, in order to learn by heart other doctrines, which they did not understand; other ethics, other tastes different from those inspired in their race by their climate and their way of thinking… They became ashamed of what was distinctively their own that they may admire and praise what was foreign and incomprehensible.”

—	Jose P. Rizal

December 30, 2011 is Jose Rizal's 115 Death Anniversary (Rizal Day). A man, who wrote great literary pieces and became inspiration for the revolution. But for me, there are more people deserving to be the national hero; I’ll not name them.

Ang mga bagay na nagawa at nakamit ni Rizal ay talagang nagpabilib sa akin. Lalo na sa nagawa niyang impluwensya sa sangkatauhan. Ang kanyang mga pangaral, pamana at mga obra na siya nganamingmaituturing na kayamanan ng ating bansa. Ito ang tumayong simbolo o hudyat nagumising sa mga kababayan natin na maghimagsik at makibaka para sa ating kalayaan na ating tinatamasa ngayon. Si Rizal ay nagsilbing inspirasyon para sa lahat at lalo na sa mga kabataang Pilipino.

To build a new narrative for the nation requires us not to focus on the glorious past we have but on the immerse work we still have to achieve. These heroes, as we call them, are already in their graves, at peace and reduced to bones and ashes. They’ll not even know we are remembering them. Dates just function as markers in the calendar anyway; what matters is how we learn the lessons these people taught us and how we use them in building a nation fit for ourselves. (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/jose+rizal)

“One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again.” 

― José Rizal”

How One Governs Filipinas by Dr. Jose Rizal

In sum, all agree that the machine isn't working as it should.

The causes that the bad government and slow death of that country’s life are attributed to, vary depending on who studies them. Most of those who went there as functionaries or governors, those men who perhaps have a bad conscience because they have not fulfilled the duty imposed on them by the salary they received, these men shout and lay the blame for everything on the indio, perhaps to distract the public’s attention toward some other object and thus their faults will not be discovered; perhaps to convince and make their conscience believe things that by themselves cannot be believed, the way many cowards infuse themselves with valor through speechifying, the way many liars do who end up believing their own lies after repeating them countless times.

In contrast (what a parados!), those who have conscienciously fulfilled their obligations and have done everything they had to and could, within the country’s perplexing administrative labyrinth, inhibited and threatened by a capricious tyrant, who, from one mail ship to the other, can propose their removal or send them back – these blame the disorganization on the system of government, the personnel, the lack of job stability in the positions, intrigue, etc.

The friars have another system: the country’s ills are all attributed by them to the Liberal ministers, who, because they are Liberals, must be ignorant. On the other hand, the little good that there is, they attribute to themselves. Retrograde ministers, or the ministers from their convent, who by the sole fact of being such are wise, neither do good nor evil – their correct action consists of consulting them and obeying them, and this is what they communicate in lengthy telegrams that the Manila newspapers who are loyal to them publish in big letters.

As for the Liberal peninsulars who are in Filipinas, they blame the friars for the backwardness of the islands, and in their case they have more reason, since, the islands being governed as they are by the convents, the fault of the malfunctioning must fall upon the latter.

However, these Liberals forget the part they play in the dysfunction – if they were to refuse to be governed and did not serve as instruments as often happens; if they were to refuse to make concessions concerning many things that offend their convictions out of fear of losing their appointment; if they had more fortitude, more faith in their ideals, if they studied the country more and set themselves the firm objective of ending the monastic guardianship that the country is vegetating in, then the friars would not be governing Filipinas, nor would modern ideas be asphyxiated the minute they touched the beaches of Manila.

The Filipinos in general blame their country’s malaise and misery on everything above – on the friar, and on all the centuries-old elements that do not stand out for their great character, for a manifest love for the country and her inhabitants, and for a more-or-less entrepreneurial initiative in the question of reforms. The Filipinos, like the Liberals we have spoken of – and to whom they are very similar – also forget the responsibility that falls on their shoulders in their current situation, since, if the saying is true that “where the boss is in charge, the sailor isn’t,” so is the other saying that each country has the government it deserves.

The national spirit makes heard its first screams like a newborn. Before there was only the sentiment of the family or tribe; barely, just barely, that of the region. In consequence, senseless measures did not provoke strong protests from public opinion, but only among those whose relatives were more-or-less directly harmed. As far as the country is concerned, each Filipino thinks in this way: let her fend for herself, save herself, protest, fight – I will do nothing, I’m not the one who has to fix things; I’ve got enough on my hands with my interests, passions and caprices. Let others take the chestnuts out of the fire, and then we can eat them. The Filipinos seem not to know that triumph is the child of struggle, that joy is the flower of many sufferings and privations, and that all redemption presupposes martyrdom and sacrifice. They believe that by moaning and groaning, then sitting with their hands folded in their laps and letting things follow their course, they have done their duty. Others, it’s true, try to do a bit more and offer pessimistic or discouraging advice – they recommend doing nothing. There are, however, those who begin to see clearly and who do as much as they can.

The foreigners, among whom we place in the Chinese in the front line, laugh at everything that happens and take advantage of the lacks and defects of the governed and the governors, to use them. They are the happiest ones – they come over when they want, they stay as long as they please, and they leave when it’s convenient for them to do so. They are not bound by any duty toward the country, nor do they care whether the Government is more or less responsible, or the people more or less enslaved. Like the locust they strip the fields without bothering about the sower or the land. The saddest of all is that there are peninsulars and Filipinos who are like locusts in their manner of thinking and acting.

We believe that everyone is, in part, right. The parties can pass the buck to each other, the peninsulars to the Filipinos, the Filipinos to the peninsulars, the friars to the Liberals and the Liberals to the friars – we believe that even the Chinese themselves have a right to laugh at the Government and the country; it is finally a justice that we all deserve – but above all these instances of meanspiritedness, above this awful disconcertment, there is the principle that the Government in its origins is vice ridden, defective, absurd, uncommitted.

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Commentary:

 We have tried different arrays of leaders, from the dictatorship of Marcos down to the Economic approach of Arroyo. In 60 years of presidential form of government we haven’t sailed towards progress. What is wrong with us? The System or form of Government is the menace in our Society. Our Constitution marks a major breach in political continuity, a means of establishing a new political order following the rejection, collapse or failure of an old order. As the title suggests, Rizal lays out an ideal vision of what an ideal government should and should not do, with the hope that it will motivate readers to work toward that end.

This blog post is dedicated to our National Hero in the celebration of his 150th Birthday.

Jose Rizal, How One Governs Filipinas (translated by Elizabeth Medina), La Solidaridad, December 15, 1890.

Originally posted at http://mlq3.tumblr.com/